


A Certain Slant of Sunlight

by xaritomene



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Creepypasta, M/M, Mind Control, Morally Ambiguous Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-18
Updated: 2014-03-18
Packaged: 2018-01-16 05:08:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1333114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xaritomene/pseuds/xaritomene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Uther is dead, Arthur can't think straight, and Merlin knows exactly how things should go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Certain Slant of Sunlight

**Author's Note:**

> God, this one is so old. Originally written in 2008 and posted on LJ, during the first season of Merlin. (such innocent times...)

Arthur stared sickly at Merlin, trying to re-order scrambled thoughts into something like order.

“It was for the best,” Merlin said, gently. “Can’t you see that?”

Arthur couldn’t get his head round it. “He was my father," he choked out, finally.

“A tyrant,” Merlin corrected, simply, _reasonably_ , his eyes confused. “He wanted to tear us apart. Did you want that?”

“There must have been another way.” Arthur tried to sound as assertive as usual, but only managing to sound pleading. “You _killed_ him. With _magic_.”

“I don’t think there was.” Merlin’s voice, though kind, was very definite.

Arthur stared at the corpse of the man he had always wanted to love him, and looked back up at Merlin, the man he sometimes thought always had. In the end, there was no choice.

“Arthur,” Merlin said, quietly. “We could be so _good_ together.”

Such a tempting offer, and Merlin’s eyes were so warm, golden in the late sunshine. “How can I rule, without my father there to guide me?” he asked, weakly.

“Like you would have had to.” Merlin’s smile was warmer than any sunshine, and Arthur could feel himself swaying towards his sometime-manservant. “You can make Camelot so perfect Arthur. You’ve seen what magic can do. _Embrace_ magic.” He stepped closer, and Arthur did nothing to stop him. “With magic, you can be king for a hundred years, and rise to be king again later. Embrace magic.” Another step towards him. “Embrace _me_.”

“You want to rule at my side?” Arthur said, hoarsely.

Merlin shook his head, his expression kind and indulgent. “Oh, no. I leave ruling to you – I have enough power of my own without yours. But surely you can see how this kingdom needs magic?” He gestured outwards at the sunlight, at Camelot, “All this was so grey under Uther,” Arthur’s connection with the corpse on the floor seemed to be waning as the body cooled. “You could bring colour back to Camelot. You could build your palace out of gold, Arthur, if you wanted to.”

Arthur couldn’t look away from his manservant. “I-I…” No words seemed to be coming. He knew there were things he should be saying – Merlin had just _killed_ his father, the _King_ , and there were things to organise – but Merlin’s eyes caught and held him. “The laws…”

“Are yours to make,” Merlin pointed out, and that was just so Merlin, Arthur managed a weak smile.

“I could change them,” he agreed, and wondered why agreeing to change his father's dearest-held policy wasn’t more of a wrench.

“I would, if I were you,” Merlin said, his voice light and friendly, but Arthur couldn’t grasp the words, slipping over them awkwardly, letting them skitter every which-way inside his head because it was far too much effort to try and gather them back to him to make sense of them.

“If you say so," he nodded, mechanically.

Merlin’s laugh was so warm. “It’s not what I want; I want what’s best for _you_.” He held out a hand to Arthur, and the other boy stared at it for a moment, at the calluses on the palm, so different to his own weapon-calluses, and at the dirt under the nails, and those long, slender fingers. “And this is best for all of us,” Merlin continued, very quietly.

Slowly, he reached out and clasped Merlin’s warm, warm hand and could almost hear something ending as his fingers closed around it. “Of course,” he nodded, holding on a little tighter. Things were spinning out of control, he could feel them, but Merlin knew what to do, and Merlin would be an anchor for him.

“Commoners deserve the same rights as nobles, don’t they?” Merlin’s voice slid over him so tenderly, as everything around him blurred into a mass of colour and blood and too-red sunlight. “Don’t _I_ deserve the same right as a noble?”

How could Arthur deny something so obvious? “Of course.” His hand tightened on Merlin’s. “Of course you do.”

Merlin laughed again, deeper and richer. “Thank you.” An arm slid round his waist. “We have so much to change, Arthur.” A warm kiss pressed to his neck. “So much to change, and you’re doing so well. You’re going to do so well.”

“Stay with me,” Arthur begged. Suddenly, a world without Merlin was unthinkable. How would he ever sort out all the sights and sounds around him without Merlin to tell him what was right and wrong?

Another chuckle, another kiss. “Of course. Of course, Arthur. My King.”

Uther was dead, Arthur was King, and he and Merlin were going to change the world. How could Arthur ever have doubted that?

Held convulsively tight against the Prince’s chest, Merlin smiled.


End file.
